Support Ships

Many people writing, blogging, podcasting, posting, vlogging etc about Star Trek; Attack Wing tend to focus on producing ships with high PWV and quality. I've noticed it in my own writing. Yet having said that, I often run ships that aren't primarily designed to nuke opponents, ships that provide a benefit to other ships in my fleet, that do something that other ships do not, that help to ensure that my fleet has access to a certain type of action/ability/archetype that the big bruisers in my fleet do not provide: These ships are the much maligned support ships.

Support ships are perhaps even more difficult to produce in a faction pure environment, simply because the best support captains and upgrades often come from different factions. So when I sat down to write this blog I wanted to be clear (for myself as much as anyhting else) what I considered a support ship to be.

1. Support ships cost at most 30 points, but are more likely to hover around the 20 point mark
2. Support ships do something to support the rest of the fleet, by providing buffs to other ships in the fleet, either offensively, defensively or in terms of movement
3. Support ships are not minelayers. Yes, minelayers often fit into the same 20-30 point bracket as support ships, but other than helping the fleet by laying mines, mine layers tend to do nothing else to benefit the fleet as a whole. There is some cross-pollination here, since often a mine-layer will have another upgrade on board to aid the fleet, but I'm really trying to stick just to support at the moment.


So, on with some ideas:

1. Romulans
Possibly the easiest support ship to build...

Romulan Science Vessel (Romulan Science Vessel) [12]
- Donatra 6 (Captain) [4]
- Mendak (Admiral) [4]
Ship Total: 20 SP

Donatra buffs red dice whilst Mendak provides quality for another ship. If you think the RSV is too squishy, then I suggest:

R.I.S. Vo [16]
- Donatra 6 (Captain) [4]
- Mendak (Admiral) [4]
- Interphase Generator [3]
Ship Total: 27 SP

In this case, since you will rarely shoot anyway, you stay cloaked the entire game and use the ship's ability to take a free evade, the ship's normal action is Mendak's BS and you have the interphase generator to ensure that your opponent needs at least two shots at you before you go down in flames

2. Federation
Again, pretty easy to fill the brief here...

Enterprise NX-01 [16]
- Clark Terell 2 (Captain) [1]
- Hayes (Admiral) [3]
- Enhanced Hull Plating [0]
Ship Total: 20 SP

+1 Attack, +1 Defence with Enhanced Hull Plating for the extra survivability.

3. Borg
Much more difficult but in the 50/3 fleet pure meta, a little more interesting than the other fleets...

Scout 255 [24]
- Tactical Drone 2 (Captain) [1]
- Vinculum [5]
Ship Total: 30 SP

Viniculum gives out drone tokens whilst the counter attack tactical drone makes people pay a price for attacking your scout ship. I've used the named version simply because I'm after the extra shield.

4. Klingon
Lots of cards that benefit nearby ships, but not any great synergy between them. I went for this in the end...

I.K.S. Gr'oth [18]
- Gowron 6 (Captain) [4]
- Kurak [3]
Ship Total: 25 SP

Kurak for the survivability, Gowron for the benefits of his own action. Not happy with this one at all, I suppose thematically the Klingons don't lend themselves to support ships!

5. Dominion
Possibly the most difficult faction to build a support ship for from all of the Big 5...

Dominion Starship (Jem'Hadar Attack Ship) [20]
- Keevan 4 (Captain) [2]
- Ikat'Ika [5]
Ship Total: 27 SP

The idea here is to take heat off the other ships in your fleet by getting ships to attack Keevan. Ikat'ika helps to survive that shot (admittedly with little consistency). This ship just flies around annoying people and that is enough, hopefully, to benefit the rest of the fleet.


So just a few ideas from me really, and in working out the different benefits of this kind of ship, it seems obvious to me that both Klingons and Dominion don't really benefit from support ships in the way that Federation and Romulans do. The Borg are a bit of an unknown really...Since the 50/3 ruling and the Nerf, it can be difficult to work out what to run in a Borg Pure Fleet, maybe a support ship like that is the way forward?

Until next time,

I'm not Picard